DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee-archive

Published on May, 02 2024

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Archived May 10, 2024

… Working for a Nuclear-Free Future!

Meetings of the DISARM/End Wars Committee 

The regular meetings are usually on the second and last Sunday of every month at 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 pm MT, 6:30 pm CT, 7:30 pm ET. Please notify the Co-Chairs of DISARM/End Wars Committee if you want to be on the calls, via disarmchair@wilpfus.org. 

Take Action!

Call For Peace Campaign

Offering a “Bright Ideal to Guide Us Through This Darkness” of these times – the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuing racial injustices and the economic suffering of millions still without a paying job – our WILPF US President issued a Call for Peace! in October 2020, offering a positive choice for aspiration and uplift.  We call for the continuation of the United Nations Global Ceasefire (issued by the UN Security Council on July 1st, 2020) and a 50% cut to all US military spending. WILPF, along with many other peace organizations, calls for those saved funds to be moved to programs — new and existing — to meet human needs, including the need for a healthy planet.

Three related action-oriented themes have been chosen for WILPFers to work on, and resource guides have been prepared to help WILPFers carry out actions associated with the three themes. The first action was to celebrate the Entry into Force (EIF) of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which WILPFers did with great gusto on January 22, 2021 (as reported in the February 2021 eNEWS).

The other two actions are to get Congress to Move the Money from the military budget to programs that help US residents and to advocate for the continuation of the UN Secretary General’s call for a global ceasefire, underscoring that the COVID-19 pandemic is “the greatest test” the international community has faced since the Second World War. “I appealed for an immediate global ceasefire so that we could focus on our common enemy: the COVID-19 virus”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Our Work

Members of the WILPF US DISARM/End Wars Committee:

  • Gather signatures on an online or paper petition to the Senate, in support of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that entered into force on January 22, 2021. WILPF International is a founding member of the international campaign that pushed for the treaty: ICAN.
  • Get resolutions passed at the local level supporting the TPNW, and undertake other initiatives to support the legislative work of NuclearBan.US.   
  • Visit Congress, the Pentagon, and the Administration in Washington D.C. in cooperation with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and their dozens of expert "nuclear watchdogs," who are seeking the abolition of nuclear weapons, an end to nuclear power, and solutions to safely storing nuclear waste.
  • Petition their Representatives online to co-sponsor the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act”, which has been introduced into the House of Representatives every session since 1994 by DC’s Eleanor Holmes Norton.  In 2017 the language was updated to require that the U.S. “provide leadership by signing and ratifying the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”  This legislation, if passed, could provide funding for the Green New Deal
  • Conduct Nuclear-Free Future tours.  In 2016, 2017, and 2019, Disarm members brought news of Eleanor Norton’s legislation to branches all over the United States.
  • Obtain co-sponsors for the Norton legislation, HR-2850 in 2021.  Representatives Barbara Lee, Jim McGovern, Ilhan Omar and Mark Pocan were the first to co-sponsor shortly after it was introduced.  You can write a letter to your Representative asking for co-sponsors, and join a call-in campaign to Progressive Caucus and Defense Spending Reduction Caucus members launched in June, 2021.

The DISARM/End Wars Committee of WILPF US

Some members have exposed local corporate and university war profiteering.

Others initiate projects against depleted uranium.

Others protest weaponized drones, and local nuclear research and industry. 

Branches oppose the siting of F-35 jet bombers in communities such as Tucson AZ, Madison WI, and Burlington VT.

Branches organize peace vigils, peace camps, study groups, and children’s peace education.

Branches are invited ...  implored! ... to send representatives to the Disarm/End Wars Committee twice-monthly conference calls to keep us advised about branch work, learn about our campaigns, and strategize together on collaborative action.

Resources

Resource guides for the 2021 Disarm/End Wars “Call for Peace” Campaign

The first four guides focused on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW):

  • Guide #1 lists all the in-person actions to celebrate the Entry Into Force (EIF) that took place in states where WILPF has branches on January 22nd 2021. Download Guide #1 here.
  • Guide #2 contains details of several online webinars. It also has a fact sheet summarizing the significance of the EIF of the TPNW. Download Guide #2 here.
  • Guide #3 has sample letters to your representatives & President Biden about the TPNW and facts you can use to revise these letters in your own words. Download Guide #3 here.
  • Guide #4 describes the origins, texts and aims of the TPNW and the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty, the two major treaties for nuclear disarmament.  Download Guide #4 here.

More guides, on reducing US military spending and moving the money to human needs, some distributed during 2021, others pending:

  • Guide #5  “Your Tax Dollars at Work in the Middle East“ - This is a guide to U.S. military expenditures in the Middle East region. Learn what these dollars could accomplish if redirected toward constructive rather than destructive purposes and how you can work to accomplish this goal of moving the money. Download Guide #5 here.
  • Guide #6  “Community Organizing for branches” - General advice on the kinds of action WILPFers could do for the Call for Peace campaign.
  • Guide #7 “U.S. Military Spending Ruins the Environment” - Move the money from the bloated military budget to actions that help combat climate change and environmental degradation.
  • Guide #8 “National Military Spending and Your Town” - This guide explains how to find out the dollar amount collected from your community’s tax payers that is going into the US military and what it could have been otherwise spent on, and how to share this information in your town. Download Guide #8 here.
  • Guide #9 “Moving money out of the military budget into programs to benefit poor people” - Uses the Moral Budget of the Poor People’s Campaign and their Jubilee Policy Platform to show how to move billions of dollars from the military budget into programs benefiting the poor. Download Guide #9 here.
  • Guide #10 “How to get your local banks or city pension plan to divest from weapons companies” - Explains how to find out what companies your city’s employees’ pension plan invests in even if they use mutual funds, identify those companies that make nuclear weapons or other armaments, and work to get the pension plan to divest from those companies.
  • Guide #11 “Calling for Peace During a Pandemic” - Guide about the United Nations Security Council’s July 2020 call for a global ceasefire, its status and how to advocate for its continuation.
  • Guide #12 “Letters to Leaders and Resolutions about Treaties and Reducing the Military Budget” - This guide will feature examples of letters to be completed by WILPF members asking for reductions in military spending, support for pertinent bills, and adherence to arms control treaties, to be sent to the U.S. President, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, all members of our U.S. Congress, and state legislators, plus sample resolutions for city councils to pass that call for support of the TPNW and reductions in the so-called defense budget. Download Guide #12 here.

Social Media

Looking Back at 2020, the 75th Anniversary of Nuclear Insanity

Timeline75th Anniversaries of the United Nations and the Atomic Bomb

75 years is a normal human lifespan. It’s also the current lifespan of nuclear weapons, but this year it’s been given a dire kick-in-the-pants: NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE NOW ILLEGAL under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons!

1945 was a year of shifting from the violence that sends men in uniform to kill each other, to the distant violence of nuclear weapons. It was a year which rearranged power on the planet, and so it was a year that – for a time – allowed hope to appear that connections and organizations can be built amongst us so that war will never happen again. 

To remind us of the nature and meaning of the momentous events of 1945, we offer this Timeline of 1945 – the year of the creation of the UN, and the year the US dropped two atomic bombs on civilians in Japan. Please read about the developments leading to these two events, and send us your thoughts and reactions. We can add additional developments if you show us we have neglected something important. History is alive, if we make it so! 

Throughout 2020 we explored these questions:

  • What forces were behind the formation of the UN?
  • Who and what influenced the leaders of the USA to drop the nuclear bombs?
  • Why does all this matter and what is WILPF doing about it?  What could WILPF be doing about it?

We arranged for experts on the UN, on the effects of A-bombs, and on nuclear disarmament to talk with us in a series of 6 monthly webinars, from May to October 2020.  In December we looked into what followed World War II, when colonies in many countries – including Africa – became independent countries.  How are those countries burdened with the weight of militarism, which continued after WWII?  We co-sponsored, with Black Alliance for Peace and World Beyond War, a revealing webinar on AFRICOM and African human rights with speakers representing several African Sections of WILPF International.

We’ve uploaded the following 75th Anniversary webinars to the WILPF US YouTube Channel

  • Kings Bay Plowshares 7, May 17, 2020 - Martha Hennessy, a Member of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, and three lawyers discuss the use of the "Necessity Defense" in criminal trials resulting from acts to destroy nuclear weapons. 
  • The United Nations, June 28, 2020 - Phyllis Bennis of Institute for Policy Studies discusses the founding of the United Nations and the uphill battle to democratize it. She is joined by historian and WILPF member Blanche Wiesen Cook, who describes the role of Eleanor Roosevelt in the early years of the UN.  Madeleine Rees, Secretary General of WILPF International, also shares her perspectives.
  • Downwinders, July 13, 2020 - Tina Cordova, a founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, and Joni Arends, Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, speak about their struggles to get compensation and health care for victims of the July 16, 1945, Trinity A-bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and about the radioactive waste disposal problems faced by New Mexicans.
  • Hiroshima, August 9, 2020 - Dr. Hideko Tamura Snider, author of "One Sunny Day" and founder of One Sunny Day Initiatives, speaks of her childhood experience of the Hiroshima bombing and life before and after.
  • US and Russia, September 20, 2020 - Alice Slater, on the board of World Beyond War and several nuclear abolition organizations, explores “Obstacles to Nuclear Abolition: Telling the Truth About the Relationship between the U.S. and Russia” with David Swanson, World Beyond War
  • WILPF and the UN, October 22, 2020 - Ray Acheson, the Director of Reaching Critical Will, International WILPF’s disarmament program, speaks about WILPF's active role in disarmament efforts before and since October 24, 1945, the date the United Nations was founded.
  • AFRICOM, December 4, 2020 - The "AFRICOM and Human Rights in Africa" webinar features Joy Onyesoh, the President of WILPF International; Sylvie Ndongmo, the Africa Region representative of WILPF, and Margaret Kimberley, representing the Black Alliance for Peace, with first-hand reports from several other African women describing what effects AFRICOM, the U.S. military’s “African Command”, is having on their respective nations.

We are collaborating with other issue committees on webinars in 2021, including the Middle East Peace and Justice Action Committee and representatives of the WILPF Lebanon Section; the Earth Democracy Committee which produced “Military Poisons”; and Maine WILPF, PSR, and Global Network who presented “Space Force”.

Be sure to periodically check the WILPF US YouTube channel for new webinar recordings, and check the WILPF US and WILPF SMART Facebook pages for announcements of upcoming webinars!

Contact

For further information, contact the Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee co-chairs  Ellen Thomas, and Cherrill Spencer ­ at DisarmChair@wilpfus.org.

Reminder:  meetings of the DISARM/End Wars Committee are usually on the 2nd and last Sundays each month at 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 pm MT, 6:30 pm CT, 7:30 pm ET.  Please notify the Co-Chairs if you want to be on the calls.